Any Urgent Care nurses out there?

Hi all! I clicked on a link earlier today which brought me to this site and I love it! I am a RN, currently working Urgent Care in a facility where I am the only RN in the building during any given shift. Sometimes it's great, sometimes not so great! With the current trend of greater out of pocket expenses for patients, the acuity level of patients choosing Urgent Care over ED's is rising at an alarming rate! Just wondering if anyone else out there is a UC nurse and what your "routine" is?

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Nov 26, '05

welcome to the site. enjoy your stay and best wishes to you.

Jun 28, '08

I know your post is kinda old but I just registered today - looking for others like myself in urgent care to "pick each other's brains" so to speak, about different processes and problem solving that are used in urgent care. I work in a hospital based urgent care in a midwestern town of about 100,000 people. We have three sites, one at the hospital and two off site. I'm interested in how other urgent cares handle triage time, registration, evidence based projects, staffing, etc. It is an HMO not-for-profit organization. It seems, at least here, that people expect very quick in and out the door visits -like a drive-thru! - that always keeps us looking for ways to streamline our practice.

I'd love to chat - drop me a line!

Jul 24, '08

Are you still in urgent care? I just recently signed on and am looking for other urgent care nurses to talk to!

Are you still in urgent care? I just recently signed on and am looking for other urgent care nurses to talk to!

Have you checked under the specialty tab at our other forums?

Jul 31, '08

It is so good to see other posts for Urgent Care!! I just started in UC the first of this month and liking it. I work for a Kaiser in So. Calif. and it gets pretty busy here. The dept is huge, 2 floors, so when I am shot nurse carrying the beeper it's like a marathon!! Oh, yes, we see a lot of people that should by all means go to the ER. Never a dull moment. Lately I've been working in the screening area and doing the RN visits. I've started working per diem here so I can take time off when I need to. I've heard turn over is high in this dept. and I can see why. As you can imagine I've been getting a lot of requests to work for other nurses so they can schedule a day off. Love to chat Illinoisnurse! Or other UC nurses.

Jul 31, '08

Wow, that sounds like a huge operation! My department is definitely smaller - 1 or 2 nurses, 1 physicans, x-ray tech, med. office assistant and receptionist. Our turnover is very low - nurses love it after coming from the hospital floor. I have been there for 9 years. We work 3 12 hour shifts and one weekend a month. We have three urgent cares in a midwestern town of about 100,000 people. You must have a ton of nurses if just one nurse is giving shots!!! I'm curious about your registration and triage process. Our patients sign in at the desk and then fill out paperwork. Our goal is to triage people in 30 minutes or less which is usually impossible!!!! Unless we are not busy at all. We are open from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. For the most part I really like my job. *wine

Aug 1, '08

Oh my ....Where to begin...I worked yesterday evening for a nurse(4 - 11:30 pm, I usually work days) and was assigned to be the shot nurse. I had 2 other RN's that pitched in when I needed help. Lots of toradol shots!! In all wasn't bad.
Ok, the check in process...everything is on the computer, well almost. Patient's are checked in, the name appears under the providers name on our computers, if they are there for an appt., or under the team leaders name if for an RN visit. If I see the patient I am able to change the patient to me as the provider. But even though they are on the computer we still get a check in paper!! However.......if a patient presents with an emergent problem, chest pain, sob, they come right in red flagged and are screened and taken care of right away. It gets tricky when several emergencies all at once!!
Yeah, there is a pretty large staff, mostly on the day shift with one RN that comes in at 11:00 am leaves at 7:30 pm.
Screening.....that goes fairly quickly...if they need care right away we get the mentor MD to give orders for treatment; if not we get them in for a sameday appt. (But if they are coming in for a shot or dressing changes we are able to check in the computer for the orders.)These go faster than a speeding bullet!
Wow, 12 hour shifts.....they had this dept on 12 hours just before I came and abandoned them for 8 and 7 hour shifts. I'm on a 7 hour shift. Wish it were 8. I think it's the per diem pay issue.
Yes, yes, I like Urgent Care. In the early 90's I was the lead RN in the Adult After hours urgent care when I lived in Los Angeles. Worked the 5-2AM shift while I finished my BSN. Then left it to work in Home Health. Never really liked Home Health. Too much paper work. After 14 years there, 4 years in the clinics, FP and IM, here I am back home!! It's so.....so.....unstructured
I'm wondering.....why do patients in your uc fill out papers when they are checked in? Or is this just for the new patients?
Illinoisnurse, your clinic UC sounds so nice. would like to hear more about it!

Aug 1, '08

Whew, that place sounds BUSY!! I'm not sure if I can answer why we still use paper charting. I work for a Catholic hospital who is a little behind technology-wise. When the hospital switched over to computers on the floor for charting, it just didn't seem to fit for us, so we continued handwriting everything. I know that must sound archaic but we're just used to it. We are, however, going to EMR next year.
One of our urgent cares is located within the hospital complex and two are off site. We have a nurse-manager for all three sites and then a charge nurse at each site. I am the charge nurse at one of the off site clinics.
Do you have appointments at your clinic? We are strictly walk in. We don't have nurse visits, not even for a tetanus shot or dressing change. Not sure why, just "that's the way it's always been."
Our healthcare system has an HMO that charges an office visit for coming to urgent care versus $150 for the ER so that's where we get a lot of inappropriate visits. But most of our stuff is sore throat, sinus, back pain, sprained ankles and such.
Thanks for gettin' back to me! More later.......

Aug 1, '08

Hi again.....
What is EMR?
OK about those appts.... The appts are for the Family Practice providers working in the modules in the day time. That made me scratch my head too when it first heard of appts in the Urgent Care setting. In the evening however, after 5PM, all walkins are seen. And boy do they come.... but we see them all. Might mention clinic closes at 9PM, that is no more patients are checked in. So for 2 1/2 hours we finish up with what patients are there, documentation, etc. I think it works out well.

Sep 3, '08

I am an urgent care RN (as of this spring -08) I absolutely love it and feel very lucky to have gotten the job. I tried to find a forum just for us nurses but could not find one. Can anyone point me to it? I see where someone kept saying try the ER forum but no luck. Thanks ahead of time.

AmyD_RN

Sep 3, '08

EMR is electronic medical record. Our doctors still hand write their notes! Feel like they're in the dark ages!